Trenton State College                                                                 April 1993

Clitoridectomies are either common or universal in nearly 20 African nations, many Middle Eastern nations, and in parts of Malaysia, Indonesia, and the India-Pakistan Subcontinent.  The prevalence of clitoridectomies in Egypt has declined substantially and is now largely limited to a few groups in rural areas.  The procedure continues to be practice widely among certain tribes in Nigeria and in other parts of Africa.  Some African countries have passed (rarely enforced) laws against clitoridectomy, but the practice is only glancingly acknowledged by government ministries of information and journalists.  All told, about 80 million women have had clitoridectomies; about 80 million women have undergone genital mutilation.  Although most clitoridectomy victims are Muslims, it has also been practice by Christians, animists, and some Ethiopian Jews.  Clitoridectomies were also occasionally recommended to "cure" female masturbators and women with "loose" moral virtues in the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century United States.

What is clitoridectomy?  It is the ritual removal of the clitrois, sometimes accompanied by infibulation (stitching of the vulva).  This mutilation occurs under unsanitary conditions and without anesthesia; victims are often held down by relatives or tied down.  A more radical form of clitoridectomy, known as Sudanese or Pharaonic clitoridectomy, is practiced widely in Sudan, generally between the ages of 4 and 8.  Pharaonic clitoridectomy entails removal of the clitoris along with the labia minora and the inner layers of the labia majora.  After removal of the skin tissue, the raw edges of the labia major are sewn together and a tiny opening is left to allow passage of urine and menstrual discharge.  Medical complications are common, including menstrual and urinary problems and even death.  After marriage, the opening is enlarged.  Enlargement is a gradual process that is often made difficult by scar tissue, and hemorrhaging and tearing of surrounding tissues often occur.  It may take three months or longer before the opening is large enough to allow penile penetration.  Mutilation of the labia is now illegal in Sudan, although the law continues to allow the removal of the clitoris.

What are the effects of clitoridectomy?  The London-based Minority Rights Group International lists the following short- and long-term effects: tetanus, hemorrhages, septicemia, and cuts in the urethra, vaginal walls, bladder, and anal sphincter, chronic vaginal and urinary infections, massive scarring that can impede walking, large cysts, fistuals, incontinence, painful intercourse and menstruation, vulval abscesses, sterility, increased vulnerability to the AIDS virus, and of course, deaths under the knife.

What is the "rationale" for this torture?  The practice is often cited as puberty rite in late childhood or early adolescence.  The removal of the clitoris is believed to keep a girl chaste because the clitoris is sensitive to sexual stimulation.  It is feared that girls are otherwise consumed with sexual desires.  Some groups in rural Egypt and in the northern Sudan, however, perform clitoridectomies primarily because it is a social custom that has been passed down through the generations from ancient times or because they perceive it as part of their faith in Islam, although the Koran itself does not require it.

Most of this information appeared in a New York Times column by A.M. Rosenthal (December, 1992).  Rosenthal argued that the people of governments of nations where clitoridectomy is practiced should rise up against the "Sexual and social insanities" that permit the torture and mutilation of their women and that Western nations can help by increasing or decreasing economic aid to these nations depending on whether or not their governments take meaningful action against clitoridectomy.  France may have recently served as a model for discouraging clitoridectomy by training two immigrants from the West African state of Mali for mutilating their daughters.  Clitoridectomy can be treated as a permanent priority in the United Nations.

But first we women have to feel this in our bones.  We must address this atrocity in our homes, in our classrooms, in our places of worship, and in our halls of government.  This is a human rights issue and a living example of how men work their will upon women.